A Poetry Book to Match the Season: Spring has Sprung

Driving with Dante

It's spring here along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains - the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and the snow is beginning to melt. Rejuvenation, love, and adventure permeate the air. All of the pollen has begun to effect my mind - I seem to be distracted, with sputtering thoughts running through my head of places I want to go this summer, adventures I want to have, and books I just can't wait to read. Spring is also the time of poetry. I've noticed that I tend to read books based not only on mood, but also based on season. Poetry is just one of those genres that you want to read in spring. Do you really want to sit down with a 600 page novel when for the first time in several months the sky is extra blue, the grass is turning green, and the outdoors are calling your name? No, large novels are for mid-summer by the pool or cold winter nights by the fire. Spring is the time of poetry - when everything is bursting with life and energy.

So, after finishing up the poetry of Patrick Walker I couldn't bring myself to delve into the novels I have on my nightstand. Rather, I needed another poetry book - something that captured the energy, excitement, and life that was taking place all around me. Luckily, I grabbed Driving with Danteby Brian Michael Tracy. This was just what I was looking for - poems written by a craftsmen of the word. Taking the reader through a series of what Brian calls "water poems", Driving with Danteis a reflective look at childhood innocence, adolescent awakening, and the emergence of adult emotions and experiences. In other words, a poetry book to match the season. Containing such emotionally laden poems as "Because We Are Water" and "Apollo's Wind", I was pleasantly surprised by Brian's work. Here was a poet who has captured not only the mood in the air, but also the essence of what it is to be human.

For example, the poem "Downstream" demonstrates Driving with Dante'sapplicability to the present ending of winter and the birth of spring.

All eyes are on the river,
like a fire in winter's hearth
they gaze upon it.

Last year the river was low,
so low the ice could not hold it.
The mud would push the frost away
night after night, refusing its advances;
and it stayed right through summer.

But now the sun has pressed the snow
and the river is new again.
The mud has moved downstream.

Children ride their bikes,
robins land in the trees
and we walk
arm-in-arm again with the wind
as it moves us ever closer
to the bay.

What really completes this collection of poems, however, is the accompanying CD that Brian recorded with friends Andy Hill and Renee Safier. Midnight Teacontains seventeen songs with Brian reading his poetry over. Paying tribute to poets such as Wallace Stevens and Larry Levis, as well as the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, Midnight Teademonstrates the depth and charge Brian's poetry has - as well as the musical talents of Andy and Renee.

Spring is a time to break out of the old and embrace the new. Driving with Danteand the accompanying CD Midnight Teais the perfect way to do just that. Pick up a copy and find a nice spot by a small mountain stream or at a secluded beach. Sit back and let the essence of spring envelope you - both physically and spiritually. This is one of the best times of year, and Brian's poetry along with Andy and Renee's music fit right in. Read a poem, listen to a song, and watch the grass grow and the robins dance. I know my spring has been made a little richer - so can yours.


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